Cryokinesis
by Ganachest
Summary: After being abandoned by her parents, Gwendolyn Monroe ventures off to find a new home. Little did she know, she would stumble upon a re-opened school that accepts and helps people of her kind: mutants who are not accepted by society.
1. Chapter 1

Cryokinesis

Mutation: It is the key to our evolution. It is how we evolved from a single-celled organism into the dominant species on the planet. This process is slow, normally taking thousands and thousands of years. But every few millennia, evolution leaps forward.

This particular mutant has a quite unique power known as cryokinesis. This means she has the mental capability to freeze anything using her mind. Her name is Gwendolyn Monroe.

When she was young, Gwendolyn, or Gwen, was abandoned by her mother and father for they feared her mutant powers. She had come home one day to an empty house and yelled up and down the long halls for her parents. They did not answer. She looked in every room in the house, but each was vacant.

"Hm," she thought to herself. "Maybe they just went to the store." She decided to wait for them to come back. When she woke up the next morning she had realized she had fallen asleep in the tan rocking chair that she loved to sit in as a child.

She stood up, stretched, and peeked out of the white blinds to check for her parent's car. It was not there. She stepped back and ran to her parent's room. Vacant. She quickly walked to the wooden dressers and pulled out each drawer. Each one was empty.

It was at that moment she realized that her parents were never coming back. She yanked a drawer completely out of the dresser and threw it across the room with a scream. She knew why they had left. Who would ever want a _mutant_ child?

She stomped into her room, opened her white-painted dressers, and shoved all of her clothes into a backpack. She took the little bit of money she had along with other important necessities.

When she finished, she took her short white hair and put it into two stubby pigtails that rested on her shoulders. She looked in the mirror as she was doing so. Her face, which was usually ghostly pale, was now burning red from anger. She was surprised that not a single tear had slid down from her aqua eyes.

She then slipped on her gray winter boots, grabbed her seafoam green peacoat, and slammed the door behind her. When the door slammed, she angrily covered the whole house in ice. She refused to be ashamed of her cryokinetic powers any longer.

She traveled for days, stopping at small restaraunts only when she needed to. She barely slept. She had nowhere to go, until one day she came upon a school.

This school did not seem like any other school. In fact, it looked more like a mansion. It was a huge white building with beautiful greenery everywhere. It had a big black gate surrounding it. There was a sign that read "Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters." The sign was rusted and it had clearly fallen off of the wall a while before she arrived.

The words 'gifted youngsters' intrigued Gwen, so she decided to check the place out. She opened the gate and walked across the big, circular path that led to the building. As she approached the big, brown doors, she was nervous to knock. She lifted her hand and paused for a second. "Come on," said a voice in her head. "Knock."

When she knocked, a young man answered the door. He was tall and thin with short black hair and glasses. "Hello," he said with a smile.

"Hi, uh, I'm Gwendolyn," she replied. "I've been traveling for days because I no longer have a home. I somehow came upon this place and, well, some instinctive voice in my mind told me to come and knock on the door, and-"

She paused, hoping she did not sound crazy. The young man smiled. "I think you should see the professor." He opened the door wider. She hesitantly walked in, only to find that the place looked as though it had been abandoned. It had many rooms with dust, and cob webs on the ceiling. In front of her was a giant staircase on both the left and right sides that merged together in the center which faced forward. She considered turning around and running away, until the boy behind her spoke again.

"Sorry, we're still working on cleaning the place up on the inside," the young man said, slightly embarrased. "My name is Hank McCoy by the way." He began walking up the stairs and gestured for her to follow.

"Interesting name," Gwen commented while catching up to him.

"Not as interesting as Gwendolyn. Where does that name come from?" He asked, and she couldn't help but laugh.

"It's Celtic."

They reached the top of the stairs, walked down the long hallway, and entered a room with a big window and a man sitting in front of an office desk. "Sir, a young woman is here to see you." Hank said.

"Ah," he said, turning his wheelchair to face her. "Hello uh, Gwendolyn is it?"

The man was young with long brown hair and scruff on his chin. He wore a suit and tie and the wheels on his wheelchair seemed to have a big "X" on them. "How do you know my name?" Gwen said, suddenly a bit frightened.

"Don't worry, I've always had the power to do this. I have telepathy, you see." the man explained. "Do you recall the voice that was telling you to knock on the door?" he asked. Gwen nodded. "Well, that was me." he smiled. "I am Charles Xavier, and this is the school that I am re-opening."

Gwen found herself sitting down in the chair in front of him and Hank joined her. "This is going to be a school for people like us," Hank explained. "Mutants with nowhere else to go." Gwen thought about the idea and she loved it. Charles leaned in. "Gwendolyn," he said. "You have nowhere else to go, correct?"

Gwen nodded. "Yes, that's correct."

"Well, would you like to be one of the first to attend Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters?" Charles smiled. Gwen thought about it for a few moments. Could she really trust these people? Then again, the man was a mutant too, and mutants should stick together right? She couldn't help but smile while she gave him her answer.

"Yes, yes I would," she said, beaming.

"Great, then let's find you a room to stay in," Charles grinned.

After two weeks of staying at the school and helping clean up the inside, Professor Xavier asked Gwen to deliver a letter to a certain address. She agreed, then asked what it was about. He simply said "That is for another time." Gwen decided not to ask a million questions this time. She always felt as though she bugged people when she did that.

As she was leaving the huge mansion, she read the name on the envelope: Maximoff. For some reason that name made her smile. Maybe because it sounded so unique. She decided to take a city bus to the address. She was careful not to reveal her mutant power.

She arrived at a white brick house with an angular roof. She walked up the few steps that led to the door and rang the doorbell. An older lady with long, brown hair, who was wearing a dress, answered the door. She seemed to be rather stressed.

"Hi," Gwen smiled. "Is, uh, Peter Maximoff here?" she asked. The lady looked down at the envelope and her eyes grew wide.

"Oh no, is that a fine? What did he take this time?" she asked, slightly startled. Gwen tried to calm her down with a hand gesture.

"Nothing ma'am, this is just a letter for him." she assured.

"Peter!" she called. "There is a young lady at the door for you!" In less than a split second, he was at the door. Gwen wondered how he got there so fast. Peter was tall. He had gray hair that went to his shoulders, and brown eyes. He wore a Pink Floyd T-shirt with jeans and a pair of black Converse. Gwen found him to be very attractive. It almost made her unable to speak.

"Hey," he said. "Who are you?" His voice was deeper than she expected, but it suited him so well. He looked down at the envelope she was holding. "What's that?" he asked.

"Uh, I'm Gwendolyn and this is a letter for you from Charles Xavier." She handed the letter to him. She was shocked at how smooth her voice was. Usually when she is nervous her voice is shaky.

"Cool," he said, and in a split second he was gone and back with the envelope no longer in his hand. Gwen realized then that he is a mutant with super speed. This was a power she had always been interested in.

"Do you- do you have super speed?" she asked with a smile.

"What are you talking about? I'm just fast," Peter said.

"Okay, but you're freakishly fast," replied Gwendolyn. "You must be a mutant, too."

"'_Too?'"_ Peter said, not letting the word slip past him. "Do you have some sort of '_special abilities'_?"

"Well, yes but I wouldn't call it special," she replied.

"Why, what is it?" he asked, curiously.

"It's called cryokinesis. It allows you to freeze anything with your mind," she explained.

"Freeze anything, like with ice?" He was suddenly interested in her power.

"Well what else would you freeze things with?" Gwendolyn regretted what she as soon as it came out of her mouth. She had a habit being a bit of a smart alec sometimes. She hoped Peter would not find it rude. To her relief, he just laughed.

"That's awesome! Can you show me?" he asked.

She looked around for something she could freeze without bringing much attention to them. "Uh..." she said, looking up at him again.

"Oh, wait one second," Peter said, and within a split second he was gone and back, this time with a glass of water.

"Here," he said, holding it out to her. She looked at the cup as a thin layer of ice began to form on the glass and the water became solid. Peter smiled when he saw the ice start to appear.

"Easy one," Gwen laughed. "So," she started again. "What's it like 'being fast?'"

Peter grinned at the question.

"Well, I can show you if you'll let me walk you to that school of yours."

"Don't you mean _run_ me to that school?" Gwen felt as though that was a cheesy joke, but his laugh reassured her that it was clever. They both walked out onto the sidewalk.

"Okay," Peter said, putting his hand on her neck. "I'm going to hold your neck so you don't get whiplash." Gwen nodded, silently repeating the word to herself. "Are you ready?" he asked.

"Always," Gwen replied with a big smile. Zooooom! Off they went.


	2. Chapter 2

Whiplash

As soon as Gwen and Peter stopped outside of the mansion, Gwendolyn felt a rush of adrenaline flow through her body. Her white hair looked as though it had just been through a windstorm and her head felt a little light. For a moment she nearly lost her balance, but that did not stop her aqua eyes from lighting up.

"You probably feel a little weird right now," Peter said. "It's cool, it'll pass."

Gwen was silent for a moment, until a smile spread across her face and she exclaimed "That was _so cool!"_

Peter smiled as Gwen began babbling. "I love the feeling of adrenaline that flows through you as you're running! I love the rush of wind you feel! I even love the feeling of whiplash when you stop! We _have _to do that again!"

Peter chucked, running a hand through his silver hair. "Maybe not right now. You seem to be having an adrenaline rush," he said. "By the way, your hair looks like you've just been through a wind tunnel."

Gwendolyn's face turned slightly pink as she tried to tame her bangs and pigtails. "I practically was."

She noticed that Peter was gazing at the huge mansion just beyond the black gate. Inspecting the mansion from this distance made her realize that they had done a pretty good job cleaning up the place. The greenery was trimmed, the walls were clean, and the windows were no longer foggy from dust.

"So," Peter started. "This is where you go to school? It looks more like a giant house to me."

"It's sorta both," Gwen said with a half-smile. "If a student has nowhere to stay, they get a room here. It's a place for them to be taken care of."

"Do you have a room here?"

"Yep," Gwen said, peering through the bars of the gate. "This is the place I call home."

"Maybe you could show me around inside," Peter smiled as he nudged her with his elbow.

Gwen chuckled. "Are you sure? I mean, the place is pretty clean now but it's not exactly perfect."

"I live in my mom's basement; do I look like a guy who needs perfection?"

Gwen laughed, then figured it wouldn't hurt to show him around. She could give him a little tour of the mansion.

First she showed him the essentials such as the kitchen and the dining room, next were the classrooms and the giant library. Then, they went to the laboratories where Peter got to meet the Professor and Hank McCoy. They toured all three floors of the mansion. Finally, the very last stop was the dormitories.

"And this is the room I stay in," said Gwen as they walked down the hallway and approached the fourth door to the left. She opened the door to reveal her bedroom. There was a small bed pushed up against the furthest wall with the small window, and a little nightstand next to it that had an alarm clock and a small hairbrush on top of it. There were many band posters taped to the wall, and another door which Peter assumed was her closet.

"It's really bland in here. I haven't had much time to decorate," she said, then thought for a moment. "Well, I also don't own very many things to put in here."

"I like it," Peter said, looking around at all of her posters. The bands seemed to range from The Beatles, to Queen, to Pink Floyd. "You have good music taste."

"Thanks," Gwen smiled as she opened her window. She took off her seafoam green peacoat to reveal a white and gray baseball-style t-shirt. As she passed by the small mirror hanging next to her closet door, her facial expression became very shocked. "Woah! My hair still looks awful."

Peter chuckled as Gwen took the pigtails out of her snowy white hair and began to brush it. She couldn't help but notice Peter staring at her.

"What?" she asked.

"Uh, nothing," he said suddenly, as though he was caught off-guard.

"You can sit down, you know," Gwen smiled. "I know it's not much, but make yourself at home."

"Maybe it's not much," said Peter as he sat on the edge of her bed. "But it's enough."

"That's true," Gwen smiled, sitting next to him.

"Maybe you could come to my place sometime," Peter suggested. "We could hang out in my basement. Play some ping-pong."

"That sounds like fun," Gwen said happily. "I've never played ping-pong before."

"You've _never_ played ping-pong before? Did you live under a rock before you came here?"

"Hey! Keep in mind I was very sheltered from the rest of the world. I was never allowed to go to many places."

"Why not?"

"My parents didn't exactly like the fact that I could do _this_," she said as the surface of her nightstand was quickly covered in ice. "Just by thinking about it."

"I guess they should've learned to appreciate a cold house," Peter teased.

"Shut up," Gwen smiled as she rolled her eyes.

"So can you melt the ice?"

"Well, that's the part that sucks. Melting the ice is way harder, and it's a much slower process."

"Well," said Peter. "Every power comes with a downside, I guess."

"Yeah right!" Gwen chuckled in disbelief. "If that's the case then what's _your_ downside?"

"People say I'm too impatient. I also get bored really fast," said Peter. "By the way, are you hungry? I'm hungry."

"I can see what those people are talking about," Gwen mumbled to herself.

Peter stood up, stretched, then tugged lightly on a piece of her hair. "You wanna go get a burger or something?"

"Um, I don't know. Professor Xavier might want me to stay here and help clean up a little," Gwen said as she thought about all of the classrooms that needed dusting.

"Oh, come on," said Peter as he offered her his hand. "We'll be quick as a rabbit."

"Don't you mean quick as a bunny?"

"Same thing."

Gwen pondered on his offer for a few moments, then finally came to a decision. "You know what?" she grinned. "Why not?"

She took Peter's hand and as soon as the two of them stepped outside, they zoomed off towards the local burger joint.


	3. Chapter 3

Cold Hands

Gwendolyn felt just the slightest bit awkward while sitting in a laboratory with multiple machines and wires attached to her head. This was her first time in a lab and so far she was not enjoying it. Hank kept asking her questions using words she hardly understood, and occasionally he would comment something about her brain activity that felt a little invasive.

"So why exactly are you doing this to me?" Gwen asked as her legs dangled from the table she was sitting on.

"I want to try and figure out your brain and how it's connected with your freezing abilities," Hank responded. "I can understand how the professor can read minds and all, but your situation…it's something I've never seen before."

"Well yeah, that's kinda the reason I'm at this school," Gwen said sarcastically.

"You know what I mean," Hank sighed.

"I know. But I can tell you one thing," said Gwen as she began to pull the wires off of her head. "It has something to do with my emotions. Every time I lose control of them, ice starts to form even if I don't want it to."

"Okay, but I want to know more about that. I want to know why it deals with your emotions and how exactly the ice can form out of nowhere."

"We're talking about the human brain, Hank. No one can figure it out fully."

"Have you made any discoveries?" said a familiar voice from the hallway. In the next moment, Professor Xavier rolled into the lab with his wheelchair.

"We've discovered that Hank McCoy is a huge nerd," Gwen joked.

Hank sighed then said "We haven't discovered anything yet, but hopefully we will soon."

"But for now," Gwen said, hopping off of the table and adjusting her gray Beatles t-shirt. "I'm going to Peter's house."

"Again?" said Hank. "That's the second time this week."

"So what?" Gwen said. "It gets a little boring over here sometimes."

"Just…be safe," said Hank.

"And have fun," said Xavier. "But not too much fun."

After running upstairs to grab her teal peacoat and put her gray boots on, Gwendolyn headed towards Peter's house. As she stepped onto the bus, she chose a more isolated seat. She listened to her music for the whole ride until the bus finally stopped near the Maximoff house. When she knocked on the front door, a little brunet girl with a pink frilly princess dress answered.

"Hi," Gwen smiled. This must have been his sister, who was at a friend's house last time she visited. "Is Peter here?"

"He's downstairs," the girl said as she pointed to the stairs that lead to the basement. "Are you his girlfriend?"

Gwen couldn't help but laugh at this. "I wouldn't exactly say that. Can I come in?"

The little girl decided to escort Gwen downstairs, asking her numerous questions about her ice abilities along the way. When they entered the basement, Gwen saw Peter speeding back and forth along the ping-pong table. She noticed he was playing the game by himself.

"Hey Peter, your friend is here!" the girl shouted at her brother.

Peter stopped in his tracks, and the bright orange ping-pong ball bounced to the floor. "Oh, hey Gwen." He smiled.

The little girl turned back to Gwen and said "I'm going back upstairs now," before marching back up the stairs.

"She's an inquisitive one," Gwen chuckled, and Peter chuckled too.

"That's my sister Wanda," he said. "Sorry if she bombarded you with questions. She tends to do that."

"It's fine. Trust me, they were nothing compared to the amount of questions Hank was asking earlier."

"Is he still trying to figure out your brain or whatever?"

"Yes, and we have gotten nowhere," she huffed as she plopped onto his couch. "It's really annoying."

"Well," Peter said, putting a paddle in one of her hands then grabbing the other hand to pull her up off the couch. "Now you get a break from all that."

"Uh, I don't know how to play this game," Gwen said as she took off her peacoat and tossed it onto the couch.

As she approached the table, Peter said "It's easy. Just try and hit the ball with your paddle."

As Peter served, Gwen successfully managed to hit the tiny orange ball with her paddle. "See?" he said. "It's easy. Now, every time you miss I gain a point."

"And I assume every time _you_ miss, _I_ gain a point?" Gwen asked.

"No, you gain nothing. Only I can gain the points," Peter joked.

"Excuse me?!" said Gwen sassily.

"You heard me!"

"Oh, it's on now!"

The two of them played about five games before Gwen finally surrendered. Peter had won, and she would never hear the end of it. She wasn't surprised though; it was only her first time playing.

After hanging out for a few more hours, Peter asked if Gwen wanted to spend the night at his house. Gwen agreed and he gave her a black Pink Floyd shirt and red basketball shorts to wear as pajamas.

Later on, the two of them were sitting on the couch laughing. "I can't believe you did that to Hank," Peter said.

"Well it's not like I _meant_ to freeze his glasses. He was annoying me and it just sort of happened." Gwen laughed.

"Sure, I totally believe you," Peter joked, then he tugged on her white hair. "By the way, do you always wear pigtails?"

"Yeah, why? Do they look bad?"

"Not at all. It just made me curious."

"It's very rare that I wear my hair down…but I guess I could take it down now that I'm staying the night here," Gwen said, then she took the red hair ties out of her hair. Running her hand through it, she could feel how fluffy and untamed it was. Then she noticed Peter staring.

"What?" she asked, then when he didn't respond she said again "What?"

The next thing Gwen knew, Peter pulled her in for a kiss. No, multiple kisses. All at once. She hardly knew how to feel as she kissed him back. She felt shocked. She felt happy. She felt ice forming upon her hands. Uh oh.

As soon as the ice touched Peter's cheek, he jumped back. "I'm sorry!" Gwen exclaimed. "I-I can't control that. Whenever I lose control of my emotions, ice will form on my hands and I can't stop it and— "

Peter pressed one of his fingers to her lips. "It's okay," he smiled. "It was just a little surprising."

"I'm sorry," she said meekly.

"Don't be. I like a little surprise every once in a while…just try not to turn yourself into a human popsicle," he said as he pulled her into a kiss again.

As the kisses continued, ice formed a little further up Gwen's arm. Peter did not seem to mind it anymore, which made her relieved. Eventually, they laid down on the couch together and cuddled. As she rested on his chest, she slowly drifted off to sleep.


End file.
